


When This is Over (We'll Have Waffles)

by bluebox_dragon



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Family Feels, Gen, Good Dad Owen Strand, tk makes bad decisions, waffles as a way to cope with emotions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 09:00:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23468827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluebox_dragon/pseuds/bluebox_dragon
Summary: They make waffles, when it’s all over.---Five times Owen and TK deal with endings and new beginnings by making waffles.
Relationships: Owen Strand & TK Strand
Comments: 9
Kudos: 166





	When This is Over (We'll Have Waffles)

**Author's Note:**

> As per usual, this is completely unedited!
> 
> I asked for prompts on one of my last fics, and people said they wanted more father/son interactions so here you guys go! I hope you enjoy!!
> 
> Also, emetophobia warning for the 4th section, which deals with withdrawal.

They make waffles, when it’s all over.

———-

Owen Strand hasn’t been home in nearly six days, which is the same amount of time since the first tower fell. 

He’d talked to his wife and son on the phone, once. It had been a short phone call. Yes, I’m coming home. No, I don’t know when. Yes, it’s bad. It’s really bad. The last part is to his wife only, his son is too young for this.

He walks through the door of their apartment, dead exhausted and running on pure adrenaline. His hands shake from some combination of the two. He’d barely got the key in the door.

The door doesn’t even close before his son runs down the hall, throws himself into Owen’s arms. TK isn’t heavy, barely fifty pounds, but Owen has to bring them both down to the floor in order to hold his son. 

They sit there for an eternity, TK’s tears soaking into Owen’s shirt. Another set of arms slip into the fold, holding Owen together, while he focuses on holding their son together. 

Owen has no idea how long they sit on the floor, in the front hallway. But he doesn’t even move from where he’s cradled around his son until TK moves, pulls his face out of Owen’s neck and puts his hands on Owen’s cheeks.

“Are you okay, daddy?” 

Owen doesn’t have an answer to that question, so he changes the topic.

“Wanna make waffles?” His voice cracks in the middle of his sentence, could be from exhaustion, or smoke inhalation, or emotion. He has no clue.

He lets himself be pulled off the floor by his wife and son, and lead into the kitchen.

TK stands in front of him, and holds his arms up. Owen doesn’t know if he has the strength left to lift his son, but does it anyway. He settles TK on his hip, the way he used to when TK was younger, its been a while since he held his son like this.

Gwenyth makes the waffle batter, while Owen holds TK. She doesn’t move far away from either of them, there’s an invisible tether holding the three of them together. It may be the only thing holding Owen together. 

They let TK scoop the batter onto the waffle iron, as a small treat. TK doesn’t get down from Owen’s arms to do it, just leans down, testing whatever is left of the strength in Owen’s arms. 

When they sit down to eat, they have a stack of slightly burned waffles, but Owen doesn’t think he’s ever tasted anything so amazing in his entire life. 

TK falls asleep in Owen’s lap.

“I’ll take him to bed.” Gwenyth says, “He hasn’t slept since…” Her voice trials off.

“No,” Owen shakes his head, doesn’t want to let go of his kid just yet, “Let me shower, and then he can sleep in our bed tonight.”

She kisses him softly on the temple, whispers, “Ok,” so softly that Owen almost doesn’t hear it.

“I love you,” He says.

“I love you too.” She replies.

————

TK graduates elementary school three days after Owen and Gwenyth finalize their divorce. They sit together at the ceremony, because they are here for TK, not each other. 

TK is in back row, wearing the yellow class t-shirt that Owen had washed and ironed that morning. He’s managed to get dirt on the shirt in the two hours since Owen had dropped him off. He’s also managed to find a flower crown, made of dandelions. It matches the shirt nicely, Owen thinks. 

“He shouldn’t be wearing that.” Gwenyth whispers.

“There are like five other kids wearing them as well.” Owen whispers back, there’s anger blooming in his chest, but this is not the time or place to get in a fight with his ex-wife. 

“There are five girls wearing them, Owen. Five girls and our son.” She hisses.

Owen opens his mouth to respond, but is interrupted by a teacher making her way to the front of the stage, starting the ceremony. 

Owen’s anger has died down by the time they get to pick TK up from his classroom, but from the pinched look on Gwenyth’s face, she hasn’t forgotten about the flower crown. 

TK runs up to them the second they walk through the classroom door, grinning from ear to ear and talking a mile a minute, Owen catches something about ‘sleepover’ and ‘pretty please, with sprinkles on top?’.

“Woah, slow down.” Owen laughs, “Let’s take the energy down a few notches.”

TK nods and takes a deep breath, flower crown almost falling off with how hard he nods his head.

“Mikey’s having a sleepover tonight, everyone’s going. Can I go to Mikey’s, dad, please?” TK asks, drawing out the word please as long as he can. “You can drop me off, and then mom can pick me up in the morning!” 

Owen looks over at Gwenyth, who nods.

“Well, I’ll have to talk to Mikey’s mom first, and we’d have to home beforehand, but I think that sounds ok.” Owen says. 

It’s the right call, because TK lights up, yells “Thanks dad! I love you!” Before sprinting away, presumably to find Mikey.

When they finally make it back to Owen’s apartment, TK is still bouncing all over, and still wearing the flower crown. Grenyth had tried to make him take it off, but Owen had intervened. It made the kid happy, it wasn’t hurting anyone. 

“Dad!” TK yells from the kitchen, while Owen is hanging up TK’s schoolbag. 

“Inside voice, TK.” Owen reminds him.

“Oops, sorry!” TK says, not actually lowering his voice at all. “Is it time to make waffles yet?” 

“Yes it is! You wanna wash your hands and grab some eggs for me?” Owen says. 

It’s a tradition they have, that when something is over, they make waffles. Today is a double batch day, waffles for the divorce, and waffles for elementary school.

Owen thinks that bittersweet chocolate chips are thematically appropriate. 

————-

TK is thirteen when he comes out to Owen. 

It breaks Owen’s heart to see the panic and apprehension on TK’s face, before he blurts out “I’m gay.” It breaks his heart even more to see TK steel himself against rejection after he says it. 

“I love you TK, no matter what.” He says, one hand cupping TK’s cheek. 

TK breaks down, sobbing against Owen’s chest. It’s the worst feeling, Owen thinks, to know that your kid has been suffering, and hasn’t said anything. 

“Ok, clean yourself up, and then we’ll talk about it. Sounds good?” Owen tells TK, when they finally break apart. The kid is a mess, tears and snot running down his face. Owen hands him a tissue, and rubs his shoulder.

Owen had picked up a ‘What to Say When Your Child Comes Out’ pamphlet a couple months ago, read the whole thing multiple times over, just in case his suspicions had been correct.

His suspicions were, in fact, correct. But he can’t remember a single damn thing the pamphlet had said.

“How long have you known?” Is the question he ends up going with, he doesn’t think it was on the ‘do not say’ side of the pamphlet.

“A couple years,” TK mumbles, “I had a crush on Mikey in 5th grade.” 

Owen doesn’t want to think about the fact that it had been years that TK hadn’t felt comfortable telling him, so he makes a joke.

“Mm, you can do better than that.” He teases. It’s true, TK could do so much better than Mikey.

TK seems to agree because he laughs and shoves at Owen, says “I know!”

But then Owen has to make the conversation serious again, because it’s important information that he needs to know.

“Does mom know yet?” Owen asks, and TK deflates. 

“No…” TK sighs, “I don’t want to tell her yet either.” 

Owen wants to cry, because it’s obvious that TK knows his mom won’t be as accepting. Owen knows this too, but it’s his job to make his kid feel better, so he lies.

“She loves you unconditionally, TK. But I won’t tell her anything. This is yours to share, and yours only. I wan’t tell anyone you don’t want me to.” Owen says.

There are tears in TK’s eyes again.

“You’re only the second person to know, dad.” TK says, “I don’t think I really wanna tell anyone else right now.”

Owen nods in agreement, before processing the first part of the sentence.

“Wait. Who knew before me?” He asks.

“Uh, Jones, actually.” TK says. 

Jones had already been one of Owen’s favorite firefighter, but this information just puts him right at the top of the list. He’s going to have to thank Jones next time they have a shift together, for taking care of his boy.

“He, uh, gave me his address incase things went wrong here.” TK says, like it isn’t a big deal that there had needed to be a contingency plan, incase Owen rejected his own son. 

“While I appreciate him looking out for you, you know that there is nothing you could do or say that would stop me from loving you, right?” Owen asks, and it’s a selfish question. He needs to make sure he hasn’t completely failed as a parent, that his kid knows that he’s loved.

TK just sinks into Owen’a chest again, seeking comfort like he had when he was younger. They stay like that for a while, until Owen needs to break the silence.

“I think this calls for waffles, don’t you?” He asks

TK nods, half laughing and half crying. 

Owen breaks out the food coloring, and attempts to make the waffles into a rainbow. It doesn’t actually work, but it makes TK giggle, so it’s absolutely worth it.

———-

Owen sits on the floor of the bathroom, holding his son up.

They’ve been here for nearly three hours now, while TK sobs and throws up. 

Withdrawal.

His son is going through withdrawal for drugs he hadn’t even known TK had been taking. 

It’s been a whirlwind 48 hours, since TK had collapsed in the kitchen, after saying “Dad, I took too much.” Owen isn’t sure he hasn’t been having a nightmare. The ambulance, where TK had thrown up all over the EMTs; to the hospital where they wouldn’t let him see TK until they evaluated wether or not it was a suicide attempt; and now, sitting on the bathroom floor, with TK so sick he can’t sit up.

He has to put his thoughts on hold when TK groans, turns his head weakly away from Owen. Owen manhandles him over the toilet, holds his head up while he vomits. 

“Dad, it hurts. Please,” TK cries.

“I know.” Is all that Owen can say. TK has been begging, for hours now, for Owen to let him take something, anything.

In the morning, TK will start an outpatient addiction recovery program, apparently they will give him more drugs, to help him get off these drugs. They’d had to option of keeping TK in the hospital until they could get him into the program, but TK had insisted on going home.

Which meant going through withdrawal at home, with only Owen to keep his son afloat. He’d trashed TK’s room, while TK was still at the hospital, thrown out anything and everything that could’ve been related to drugs, it had been devastating, to see how much he didn't know about his son. 

“Dad?” TK whispers, his voice is completely wrecked from crying and throwing up.

“Yeah?” Owen responds, mentally preparing himself to deny TK drugs for the millionth time that day.

“I don’t want to do drugs again.” TK says, sweaty face pressed into Owen’s chest. “I want this to all be over.” 

This is the first time TK has said anything along those lines, until now it’s just been incoherent begging for anything to stop the pain. Owen knows this is far from over, but it feels like some sort of turning point, like this might be over.

“You wanna make waffles?” He asks. He hopes that TK says yes, because that would mean TK thinks this is over.

“No.” TK whispers. “It’s not over yet.” Owen can’t help the disappointment that flares in his chest.

TK’s eyes are closed now, and Owen thinks he might be falling asleep.

“When I’m clean. We can make waffles once I’m clean.” 

Owen can work with that, so he just sits and holds his son.

———-

The first week that the 126 is operational goes about as well as Owen thinks is possible. The new team seems to be meshing well, seem to work well together on calls. 

More importantly, TK seems to be doing well with the move. 

When he made the decision to move them down here, Owen had been sure that it was the right decision. But, like most decision he’d made as a parent, he second guessed himself. 

He knew that a fresh start was what TK needed, but he worried about moving TK away from his entire support system. 

But those fears had melted away. TK had smiled at him, last night at the bar, said “I think we’re gonna be alright.” It wasn’t TK’s words that reassured him, it was his smile. A smile that reached his eyes for the first time in what felt like forever. 

Owens sits in the kitchen of their new house, thinks about the progress that they had made since leaving New York. TK had taken the car this morning, which means that Owen is missing his yoga class, but he can’t be too mad about it, not with how happy he is. 

“I’m home!” TK calls, seconds after the door swings open. 

TK walks into the kitchen, carrying three grocery bags in one arm, and a box in the other.

“Close your eyes, dad.” TK says, “I’ve got a surprise for you.” 

Owen pulls his coffee mug into his hands, and then obliges. He can hear TK messing with whatever is in the box.

“Uh, don’t open your eyes, but where is there an outlet?” TK asks. 

Owen laughs at him, before telling him about the outlet next to the fridge. 

TK continues to make noise around the kitchen, Owen can hear him opening and closing the fridge and cabinets, pulling dishes and food out. Owen has no clue what TK is up to.

Then there’s a familiar sizzling sound. 

“Ok, open your eyes dad.” TK says, after a few minutes.

Owen opens his eyes, just as TK sets a plate down in front of with a wide smile.

TK had made waffles.

**Author's Note:**

> I love hearing from you guys, so if you want to leave a comment I would be so happy!
> 
> I'm also still taking prompts!! Leave them in the comment section and I'll see what I can do!!


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